~~~
As Jasper drove back to Kansas City, Sinclair didn’t speak at all – he sat in the passenger seat and watched the lighted billboards go by. This is a nice change, Jasper thought.
After about an hour, Sinclair’s phone rang. Jasper couldn’t make out the words coming from the phone, but heard Sinclair give one-word answers. Finally, Sinclair said, “Good work, we’ll be there in a couple of hours,” and hung up the phone.
“Sounds like they found something,” Jasper said.
“Yeah,” Sinclair said. “Five girls, two of them dead. The other three were close.”
Jasper felt one weight lifted from his shoulders only to be replaced by another. No absolution, no justification. They were too late to save them all. “What else did they find?”
“Paintings,” Sinclair said. “Lots of paintings just like the one of the girl. Just like the professor said.” He laughed softly, ruefully.
Here it comes, Jasper thought. Sinclair had been quiet for an hour, and looked about to burst from all of his unanswered questions.
“What happened in there, Ted? What did he do? And where did he go?”
Jasper took a deep breath as he fidgeted with the switch that lowered the windows. Now that Sinclair had seen his friend in action, Medford’s gift shouldn’t sound so crazy.
Pat explained it to Jasper once, saying that he could see more than what was on the frame. It was like the picture was a window, and he could crawl through it. The more he concentrated, the more he could see. It was like the painting was a window and he was moving through it. Eventually, he got to the point where he could walk around in a painting, and see the world as the artist saw it.
That’s what helped Medford see so much into the artists and the work they created. It was the secret to his career. Pat used to spend hours in the Nelson-Atkins museum after public-viewing hours, looking at all the Baroque and Renaissance art, seeing things he never thought possible. But he had to stop after exploring the impressionists and surrealists. Too much disturbance, he said. All those trips inside art took their toll. Some of those artists were maniacs.
“I have no idea,” Jasper said, instead of telling Sinclair the whole story. “All I know is that he really gets into art.”
“Like, actually in the art?”
“I guess so.”
All those trips, Jasper thought. He wondered if Medford would ever want to see him again, after today’s trip. I wish I would have said good-bye, Jasper thought. He thought about turning the car around and talking to Pat, apologizing for all the mess and swearing to get back in touch. He wanted to talk to him about college, about families, about football and basketball, about everything and anything except work.
But then he remembered that Pat wouldn’t be in his office. He would be floating above a spherical mosaic, gazing at angels and demons interlocked with mathematical precision, seeing a world where good and evil existed in a balanced black and white.
~~~
About the author
Joe Hadsall is a writer, reporter and magician. He has worked in print journalism for most of his life. He has written for magazines, newspapers and on the Internet. He is currently the features editor for The Joplin Globe. He lives in Joplin with his family, and hopes to become successful enough to afford a vacation home, so he can update these “about the author” paragraphs to say something snooty such as, “He splits his time between Mexico Beach, Fla., and Tiburon, Calif.”
Hadsall also spends a lot of time geeking out about video games, music, writing, movies, magic and playing cards. You can connect with him at www.joehadsall.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/joehadsall or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/joehadsall.
ABOUT CIRCLE LIMIT IV, by M.C. ESCHER (written by Joe Hadsall)
Circle Limit IV, aka Angels and Devils, is one of the many brilliant tessellation works by Danish artist M.C. Escher. Created in 1960, its original form is a woodcut in black and ochre and was printed with two blocks. Escher is perhaps known more for his optical illusion work, but his tessellations are stunning for the reasons discussed by the character of Patrick Medford in this story.
According to information from the American Mathematical Society in 1998, the hyperbolic tessellations that Escher explored in this work and others were inspired by discussions with Canadian mathematician H.S.M. Coxeter, and were based on delving into two-dimensional representations of infinity. As a testament to Escher’s skill, Coxeter in 1995 published findings that his works were incredibly accurate: “Escher got it absolutely right to the millimeter,” he said.
Medford’s thoughts about Escher mirror my own feelings about his work. Escher was, and remains, my favorite artist for showing the beauty of mathematical precision in such an imaginative, evocative way.
Escher’s brilliant work can be found at www.mcescher.com.
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